


Catharsis

by Star_Going_Supernova



Series: human titans 'verse [4]
Category: Godzilla: King of The Monsters (2019)
Genre: Dadzilla, Father's Day, Fluff, Gen, Human!Godzilla, Human!Mothra, Laser Tag, Oh how the tables have turned
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-22
Updated: 2020-06-22
Packaged: 2021-03-03 20:00:40
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,923
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24851209
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Star_Going_Supernova/pseuds/Star_Going_Supernova
Summary: It's not every day the King of Titans issupposedto shoot back at the humans shooting him.(A much fluffier companion piece to my Mother's Day fic.)
Relationships: Godzilla (Legendary | MonsterVerse) & Madison Russell
Series: human titans 'verse [4]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1565005
Comments: 21
Kudos: 87





	Catharsis

**Author's Note:**

> Ah, I’m as late as ever. Obnoxious, but consistent. I don’t have much else to say, other than Happy Father’s Day, and I hope you enjoy!

Maddie saw Godzilla round the corner and could pinpoint the exact moment he started to suspect something was up. She didn’t bother to hide her grin as he approached.

“I should’ve been more suspicious when she insisted she’d meet me here,” he said once he’d reached her. “Mothra doesn’t usually send me on alone. What’re you up to, kid?”

Leaning back against the fence bordering one of her favorite parks, she said, “She technically didn’t lie. Mothra will meet us here, just not for a few hours.” Gently poking at a ladybug crawling along the wood, she asked Godzilla without looking at him, “I don’t suppose you know what day it is?”

“It’s—Father’s Day, right? See, y’know I’m not as good at this human stuff as Mothra, but she told me about this one back on Mother’s Day.” Godzilla smiled down at her. “You made her real happy, Pup.”

“I’m glad,” Maddie said, almost more to herself. Then, “So if you know that, then you can probably guess why she’s not joining us until later.”

She watched the realization hit him. It felt pretty good to leave the King of Titans speechless with surprise. And the look on his face was funny, too.

Speaking slowly, as if he was still processing the truth, Godzilla said, “Not that I’m not honored, kid, but shouldn’t you be spending today with your real dad?”

Maddie frowned. “Don’t say it like that.”

“What?”

“‘Real dad.’ It makes it sound like…” She glanced down, trying to find the right words. “Like you’re a fake dad. And you’re not.”

When she lifted her head, she found a very soft expression on his face. “What word would you use, then? Biological?”

She wrinkled her nose. “Too impersonal. He’s… my human dad. You’re my Titan dad.”

Godzilla hissed something in a foreign language—the one she was pretty sure no one but the Titans actually knew anymore—and reached out to engulf her in a hug. His hugs were probably the best on the planet, all warm and secure and safe. Mothra and her human dad also gave excellent hugs, but there was something about Godzilla’s that no one else ever had.

“Are you blushing?” she asked, her voice muffled against his shirt. She didn’t even try to hug him back, instead keeping her arms tucked between them. It left her feeling trapped, but in the nice way.

“No,” he said to the top of her head. She wasn’t entirely sure, but she thought his forehead was pressed against her hair. He sounded a little choked up.

“Are you _crying?_ ”

There was a suspiciously long pause before he answered, rather unconvincingly, “No.”

Maddie laughed. “Mothra was right when she called you a softie.”

“She called me _what?_ ”

Pulling back, Maddie ignored the question and said, “Anyway, you asked why I’m not with my human dad. Long story short, originally, he and I were going to do stuff today, and I was going to have Mothra help surprise you with _our_ plans next week. Unfortunately, Dad got sick yesterday and insisted I get out of the apartment while he rests, so I swapped the days around. I’ll celebrate with him once he’s feeling better. So you don’t have to feel guilty about me spending today with you instead of him.”

“I may not be friends with Doc Russell, but I’m no child stealer. What’d you have in mind, kid?”

Maddie wrapped her hand around his wrist and tugged him into following her down the street. “Ever heard of laser tag, G?”

He frowned slightly. “Can’t say I have, no.”

“Okay, so, laser tag is a game where two teams basically shoot each other for points. With laser guns, hence the name. It’ll be easier to explain some of the other stuff if you can see what I’m talking about.”

• • •

The laser tag place was part of a large recreational center with an arcade, a restaurant, bowling lanes, an indoor mini-golf course, and the aforementioned laser tag arena. Maddie’d only played a few times there, but she’d been in more often for the rest of it.

There was an observation room that overlooked the arena, so she took Godzilla there first just to give him an idea of where they’d be playing.

It was a pretty good size, covering two floors connected by ramps instead of stairs. Like most laser tag places, it was lit with black lights and the decorations glowed brightly in all sorts of colors in the dark. The theme was vaguely jungle-y, with acid-green vines and neon purple and red flowers draped over the panels providing cover.

Maddie could tell he was getting more excited as they watched the current group running around below them. “Like what you see?” she asked, grinning.

“It’s a game,” he said. “I knew it was, obviously, but I pictured it differently. Shooting at each other for points—sounds bad. Sounds _serious_. But this ain’t even _trying_ to mimic real-life.”

They listened to the cheesy music and the electronic zapping noises and the cries of exaggerated dismay mixed with laughter.

“It’s just for fun,” she promised. “I really like it because it gets me all pumped up and stuff—gives me a shot of adrenaline, y’know?—but the biggest danger is tripping and falling on your face or something. There’s no real consequence to losing. Besides, sometimes it just feels good to let loose without actually hurting anyone.”

“Then to answer your question: yeah, Pup. I really like what I see. Now, how do I win?”

Maddie laughed. “We’ll go in with a group of other people who want to play but don’t have enough to make a full two teams. There are stats at the end, so we’ll be able to see who shot us the most. We’ll be opponents, obviously. Other than shooting people, there are these little disk things that you can shoot for points. It’s like capture the flag, only you don’t take the flag. And they’ll tell us not to run, but as you can see—” she gestured at the arena, full of running kids, “—no one actually listens. Just don’t go barreling around, and you won’t get in trouble, all right?”

“Got it. Where do you aim? At the lights on the vest?”

“Yep. You only get points if the vest registers the laser. They’ll explain anything else before we go in.”

Godzilla grinned, showing off his slightly too-sharp teeth. “Kid, if this is as fun as it looks, I might just think it’s better than ice cream. What’s your human saying? Something about tables, yeah?”

“Oh, how the tables have turned,” Maddie filled in. “For the first time, G, when these humans shoot at you, you’re allowed to—expected, even!—to shoot back.”

“Mm. Cathartic. I’m looking forward to this.”

• • • 

Most of the other players in Maddie’s group gave Godzilla terrified stares, whereas the members of his team seemed pleased. The vest barely fit him and the laser gun looked pretty comical in his hands, and he was so busy trying not to bare his teeth that he ended up looking like he was glaring at anyone who made eye contact with him.

Mothra would get such a kick out of this when Maddie told her all about it.

The absolute best part of the day came when they all first entered the arena before the countdown started. People’s shirts and shoes and teeth lit up as they passed into the black light, but Godzilla took the cake. He was wearing mostly dark colors, which would’ve made it harder to see him, if it weren’t for—well, Maddie wasn’t really sure what to call them.

It looked like he was completely covered in glowing tattoos. Designs that were vaguely reminiscent of the lines on his back spines, mixed with what she could only call tribal patterns, spread from his hands, up his arms and neck, and over his face. If he’d been wearing shorts or anything less than his t-shirt, she was sure they’d be everywhere.

Now Maddie _knew_ she’d have to bring him back here, with Mothra and maybe anyone else from Monarch willing to join in.

And if the atomic-breath-blue tattoos weren’t enough, his _eyes_ were glowing too. She bit her lip to contain her delight, especially since he was looking down at himself, as surprised as everyone else.

Luckily, the countdown started before anyone could try to question him, and the entire group scattered into the room.

• • •

“And at one point, I was up on the second level and I realized G was right below me, so I kept leaning over the edge to shoot him and then I’d duck back. It took him forever to figure it out!”

Godzilla shook his head with a smile. “I chased you down good once I did, though, didn’t I?”

Mothra laughed as Maddie flopped back in the grass across from her and Godzilla. “Yeah, you did. I think the attendant was _this close_ to freaking out when you picked me up like that.”

Ah, yes, Godzilla remembered the look on the man’s face quite well. He grinned.

“So who won?” Mothra asked, looking between them.

“Well…”

Maddie popped back up. “It depends! G’s team had the most points at the end, but _I_ shot him more than he shot me.”

“Vicious Pup,” he teased, reaching over to give her ankle a little shake. “I’ll beat you next time.”

Mothra pressed her smile into his shoulder as Maddie said, “Keep dreaming, big guy. I’m clearly the superior laser-tagger.” She nudged his leg with the side of her foot. “We can go again, right? You wouldn’t mind?”

“I wouldn’t miss a rematch for the world, kid.”

Turning to Mothra, Maddie said, “What about you? I thought it might be fun if we could get a group of Monarch people together, so we won’t have to play with strangers.”

“That sounds wonderful, Maddie. I’d be happy to join you.”

“Hey, if that’s the case,” Godzilla said, “then I demand it’s the three of us against the other humans.”

Maddie rolled her eyes. “You just want to shoot G-team.”

“Can you blame me?” he asked, grinning on just this side of wild. It wasn’t his only motivation, though. Not when it’d also mean he was on the same team as his Queen and his Pup. Of course he wanted to fight side-by-side with his family.

“Did you have a good day?” Mothra asked quietly as Maddie lay down to mutter over who would probably agree to play with them.

“Yeah,” Godzilla said. It was all he needed to say. Mothra knew him well enough to tell when he was happy—not that he was trying to hide it. “Thanks for helping her get me out here.”

“She very much wanted to surprise you.”

“Well, consider me surprised.” And he had been. Because he never would have expected Maddie, who already had one halfway decent dad, would have wanted to celebrate a day geared toward fathers with _him_ of all creatures. He’d never been so glad to be wrong before.

He waited until Maddie had sat back up, still looking distracted, to lean forward and snag her, dragging her over to his free side. She yelped before laughing as she slumped against him. “What was that for?” she asked.

Keeping his arm around her shoulders, Godzilla squeezed her lightly. “Nothing. Just, thanks for today, Pup. Meant a lot to me.”

“Good.” She smiled up at him. “Happy Father’s Day, G.”

**Author's Note:**

> I’ll be honest, certain parts of this story fought me. Don’t you just love when that happens? 
> 
> you’re all wonderful, bless ❤️ • [my tumblr](https://star-going-supernova.tumblr.com) •


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